FLIPKART #PENGUINDADS

Short List
TitleFLIPKART #PENGUINDADS
BrandFLIPKART INTERNET PVT. LTD.
Product / ServiceE-COMMERCE SITE
CategoryB11. Brand Voice & Strategic Storytelling
EntrantDENTSU WEBCHUTNEY Bangalore, INDIA
Idea Creation DENTSU WEBCHUTNEY Bangalore, INDIA
PR PERFECT RELATIONS Delhi, INDIA

Credits

Name Company Position
Gautam Reghunath Dentsu Webchutney Executive Vice President
Prashant Gopalakrishnan Dentsu Webchutney Senior Vice President, Account Management
PG Aditya Dentsu Webchutney Executive Creative Director
Ashwin Palkar Dentsu Webchutney Creative Director - Design
Priyanka Borah Dentsu Webchutney Client Services Director
Sanjay Pratyush Dentsu Webchutney Senior Account Director
Aarav Khanna Dentsu Webchutney Account Executive
Angad Dutta Dentsu Webchutney Group Head - Copy
Jeanine Soares Dentsu Webchutney Senior Art Director
Kavya Satyakumar Dentsu Webchutney Associate Creative Director
Tanya Paul Dentsu Webchutney Senior Art Director
Anandhi Kumar Dentsu Webchutney Associate Art Director
Ishtaarth Dalmia Dentsu Webchutney Anthropologist

The Campaign

#PenguinDad- an identity we created for the new generation of working, Indian fathers- inspired by the most dedicated father in the animal kingdom- the Male Emperor Penguin, who shares equal responsibilities in parenting with the mother. In the unlikeliest of ways, the ‘Male Emperor Penguin’ from Antarctica, became an inspiration for India’s patriarchal society to understand their new generation of fathers. To show them it is possible for a father to balance work & home. To take a proactive interest in raising a child. To change diapers while taking work-calls. To help his child with homework while finishing office work. We wanted to show his life and his values to the country, and empower him by making him an inspiration to others.

Execution

We conducted India’s first survey on fathers, revealing that across 17 of its biggest cities, over 50% of fathers were becoming more involved in child-raising. We turned the results of the survey into a music video by one of Bollywood’s biggest directors - and mother- Ashwiny Tiwari. Released across 9 languages. On LinkedIn, 1000s of #PenguinDads changed their corporate mugshots to pictures with their kids: a powerful way to tell their circles that they’re more than their professions. It became a celebration of the male community’s first efforts to break gender-roles in parenting. As a commitment from our end, we launched the first e-commerce store for the #PenguinDad- with essentials like the first-ever line of baby-friendly sweatshirts for men.

#PenguinDad is now Indian e-commerce’s most viral campaign. It’s earned over 8X its media investments. The love for Brand Flipkart has soared - resulting in an increase in consideration which led to 9% higher Daily Active Users during the campaign period. On a sentiment analysis - on parameters like “Flipkart is a brand I love and trust” - we saw a 200 bps improvement and a and 16.6% lift in brand recall. Apart from: ? 183,448,146 impressions across 5 countries ? Coverage by 26 media outlets across TV, Print, Digital and Radio. The Ready Daddy sweatshirt created by us, generated a huge buzz amidst parenting circles, leading to a bulk order by a leading chain of maternity hospitals for their Father’s Day event. With zero marketing spends! Most importantly, the age-old myth that “Men can’t raise children” is one step closer to fading from mass India.

The Situation

Indian media has always portrayed fathers as disciplinarians, authoritarians, and uninvolved with their kids. Emotions like ‘care, mildness, sensitivity’- have been portrayed as non-existent in the father’s emotional vocabulary; furthering a patriarchal agenda that ‘working and earning’ is a ‘man’s expression’ of love. Fathers who take a proactive interest in parenting were branded as ‘effeminate’, ‘incapable’ and ‘not career focused’. Flipkart wanted to champion the progressive Dad & change society’s perception of what a father is expected to do. We knew we had a genuine story to tell and just had to find a unique way to bring it alive.

The Strategy

Our shopper data revealed the baby-steps 21 million Indian dads were taking into parenting (over 70% of parenting & baby care products on Flipkart were shopped for by men), but there was little pop-culture supporting the sentiment. Now, the brand’s advertising also had to do the job of books about dads that hadn’t been written, films that hadn’t been shot & songs that hadn’t been sung- within a limited budget. We devised campaign ideas keeping India’s different pop-culture touchpoints in mind: right from the morning newspaper ritual, to its obsession with musicals, to its shopping needs & its social media habits. In addition, the campaign would be launched around Women’s Day- to take patriarchy’s stand on “fathers raising children being effeminate” head on.

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